President Emmanuel Macron lags behind in French parliamentary elections

Photo of author

By New Clik India

Radical party leads in first phase, if it wins then Macron will not be able to make laws as per his wish

President Emmanuel Macron’s party has lagged behind in the National Assembly elections held in France. The French Home Ministry released the voting results on Monday. According to the results, the right-wing party National Rally (NR) got the highest 35.15% votes. The left-wing New Popular Front (NFP) alliance came second with 27.99%. Macron’s Renaissance Party got 20.76% votes.

The first phase of voting for 577 seats of the National Assembly was held in France on Sunday. The second phase of voting will be held on July 7. Only those candidates can stand in the second phase who have got more than 12.5 percent votes in the first phase. Any party needs to win 289 seats to get a majority in the National Assembly. The term of the French Parliament was to end in 2027, but due to a big defeat in the European Union, President Macron dissolved the Parliament prematurely this month.

President Emmanuel Macron lags behind in French parliamentary elections

In fact, the Macron government was running on the basis of a coalition. His coalition had only 250 seats and every time to pass a law, he had to garner support from other parties. Currently, the right-wing party National Rally (NR) has 88 seats in the Parliament. American news channel CNN has estimated that the right-wing party NR will win 230-280 seats out of 577 seats after the second phase of voting. The leftist NFP may get 125-165 seats.

Even if he loses, Macron will remain in office.
Macron’s Renaissance Party and his alliance are likely to get only 70 to 100 seats. Even if Macron’s Renaissance Party loses in the National Assembly elections, Macron will remain in office. Macron has already said that no matter who wins, he will not resign from the post of President.

In fact, after the defeat in the EU elections, if Macron’s party also loses in the Parliament, then there could be pressure on him to leave the post of President. Therefore, Macron has already made it clear that he will not leave his post.

If Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party wins a majority in the parliamentary elections, Macron will be extremely weak in Parliament and will need the support of opposition parties to pass any bill or introduce any new government plan.

In France, the elections for the President and the National Assembly are held separately. In such a situation, even if a party does not have a majority in the Parliament, the leader of that party can still win the presidential election. The same thing happened with Emmanuel Macron in the 2022 elections. He won the presidential election, but his coalition did not get a majority in the National Assembly.

Bardella will not become PM if majority is not obtained.
The opposition party National Rally is unlikely to get majority in the parliament. However, it can emerge as the biggest party. If it gets majority, then according to the constitution Macron will choose a Senate MP from that party. National Rally leader Jordan Bardella, 28 years old, has said that if his party does not get absolute majority, then he will not become the Prime Minister under any circumstances.

Bardella said that he does not want to become President Macron’s assistant. However, if the National Rally gets a majority, a co-existence government can be formed in France again. A co-existence government means a government in which the government is run in collaboration with the opposition party.

This has happened before, when domestic policy was in the hands of the Prime Minister, and foreign and defense policy decisions were taken by the President. However, French President Emmanuel Macron has warned that right-wing parties could plunge the country into civil war.

Election process in France
Like India, France also has two houses of Parliament. The upper house of the Parliament is called the Senate and the lower house is called the National Assembly. Members of the National Assembly are elected by the general public, while members of the Senate are elected by the members of the National Assembly and officials together.

European Parliament elections were held this month in which Macron’s party got less than 15% of the votes. Whereas, the National Rally got 31.4% of the votes. Macron suddenly dissolved the Parliament even before the election results were announced. Macron said that he cannot continue to rule as if nothing had happened.

Leave a Comment